The Refusal

Jeremiah says this…

Although they say, ‘As surely as the Lord lives,’

    still they are swearing falsely.”  Lord, do not your eyes look for truth?

    You struck them, but they felt no pain; you crushed them, but they refused correction. They made their faces harder than stone and refused to repent.

 I thought, “These are only the poor; they are foolish,

for they do not know the way of the Lord, the requirements of their God.

So just what are the requirements of our God?  To be holy, as he is holy.  Not because he’s mean, wants to us to shape up because we’re bad, but because he’s holy and he wants us to experience every aspect of who He is.

When we refuse correction and refuse to repent, when we are instructed to do so, we are like children who throw tantrums, who slam doors, who hit and fight…and that is not a pretty sight in any home.

God requires that we be holy, and he will see to it, to bring that process about, IF we humble ourselves under his loving corrective hand that says stop hating, stop lying, stop taking…and just rest.